Improvement of rectangular selection

[SparkyCola]

I can't get Sketcher to select the whole line/circle/element when I only box a part of it, no matter from where I start the selection. That is what I was looking for.

That sort of behavior is a choice made by the program designers. I have some graphics-related programs that work on the "touch" method and other that require the entire object to be selected.

There are pluses and minuses to both approaches. The "touch" method sounds easy, but it also makes it very easy to select unwanted elements that may have portions close to the desired selection. The "entire" method is generally more definite for selection, but it is slightly more work.

I don't see an obvious advantage for one method over the other.

Just learn the "rules" and go forward.

Gene

Well there is no advantage in having one of them, and changing the existing one is not a good idea. However if you have both you have the benefits of both and only the disadvantages of the one you're currently using.

[NormandC]

This is already implemented with the difference that it's not top <=> bottom/bottom <=> top but left <=> right/right <=> left.

I can't get Sketcher to select the whole line/circle/element when I only box a part of it, no matter from where I start the selection. That is what I was looking for.

I believe wmayer was talking about box selection in the general GUI of FreeCAD. I think the Sketcher edit mode uses separate code for box selection.

This would be a valid enhancement request to post on the tracker, but please remember to define Sketcher as a project.

[chrisb]

How do you perform this selection anyway?

Shift + B starts the box select command (edit menu).

Thank you.

[SparkyCola]

I did the implementation, it's going to be in the sources as soon as my pull request get's accepted, for now it's only in my fork.
So far it works perfectly for lines, has some limitations for touch-detection of circle, ellipse and all kinds arcs (it might not detect some small touches) , spline-touch detection is also kinda there but works only when one point is touched (it does not recognize touches on the actual curve). I hope it fulfils your expectations, if not let me know, maybe I can do something about that.